LEOMINSTER, Mass. — Nurses are sounding the alarm about UMass Memorial Health Care's plans to close a 12-bed pediatric unit in Leominster, alleging the unit could have remained open and saying its closure will force families to travel 28 miles to Worcester to receive care.
"We're angry and disappointed that UMass Health Alliance would consider abandoning the children of our city and surrounding communities," Natalie Pereira, chair of the Massachusetts Nurses Association local bargaining unit on the Leominster campus, said in a statement Tuesday. Theresa Love, a nurse who worked at the unit for 17 years, predicted its closure will lead to delays in children accessing care and children "being boarded in our emergency department."
Union officials say managers informed them of their intent to seek the unit's closure earlier this month, which will trigger a state review, but said that patients are already being diverted to other facilities.
"UMass management cited a low census and the lack of staff available to care for patients at all times as justification for the closure while purposely driving down patient census," the union reported. "The MNA and the nurses point to the hospital's refusal to adhere to an agreement negotiated four years ago, that called for the merging of pediatrics with a medical surgical unit and cross training the medical surgical nurses in pediatrics to ensure around the clock coverage so that the unit could remain open."
UMass Memorial says decreased government payments contributed to a $14 million operating loss in the second quarter, and said a staffing ballot question favored by the nurses union will make financial pressures "exponentially worse."
"In order for our hospitals to survive in this increasingly challenging health care environment, we must respond to the demands of state policy makers and the public – do everything possible to improve quality and reduce our costs," UMass Memorial said in a statement. "We do so by consolidating services whenever possible and finding ways to work more efficiently and cost-effectively while maintaining the high-level of quality care that our patients expect and deserve. This is true for UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital, which plans to close its inpatient pediatric services due to very low patient volume; its cardiac rehabilitation unit on the Leominster campus; and the urgent care center at the Burbank campus. The inpatient pediatric service has been averaging a daily census of less than one patient in its 11-bed unit. A pediatric observation unit will be created as part of the emergency department at the Leominster campus of UMass Memorial Health Alliance – Clinton Hospital to safely care for pediatric patients in the region 24 hours a day."
MORE: Study: Most vitamins provide little to no health benefit